Caste, mistrust and municipal inaction: The interwoven barriers for the integration of waste pickers in India.

Solid waste management in low- and middle-income countries like India faces significant challenges due to the increasing waste generation that surpasses the current capacity. Therefore, the informal waste sector (IWS) is more vital than ever in handling consumer waste alongside municipal solid waste management (SWM) systems. However, the integration of the IWS into formal waste management systems remains unresolved due to adverse social and economic conditions. This study focuses on identifying the root causes that hinder the integration of the IWS in India's waste management system, using the city of Chennai as a case study. Adopting an institutional perspective, we analyse the institutional landscape of the waste management system, considering both formal rules (in policy documents) and informal rules (i.e., social norms and routines). The institutional network analysis reveals a significant misalignment in perceptions among governance levels concerning the integration of the IWS. The study shows a considerable gap between rules-in-form and rules-in-use, leading to 1) Preclusion of waste pickers in collecting door-to-door source-segregated waste (i.e., recyclables). 2) Unfair pricing in transactions with small aggregators. 3) Lack of ID cards for waste pickers. These barriers are ultimately rooted in caste discrimination, misalignment between governance levels, and the exclusion of waste pickers in the policymaking process. In conclusion, understanding and rectifying the institutional gaps and discriminatory practices are essential steps towards effectively integrating the IWS in India's waste management system, promoting a more inclusive and sustainable approach to waste management.

Approaches to implement safe by design in early product design through combining risk assessment and Life Cycle Assessment.

The Safe by Design (SbD) concept aims to ensure the production, use and disposal of materials and products safely. While there is a growing interest in the potential of SbD to support policy commitments, such as the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan in Europe, methodological approaches and practical guidelines on SbD are, however, largely missing. The combined use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Risk Assessment (RA) is considered suitable to operationalize SbD over the whole life-cycle of a product. Here, we explore the potential of the combined use of LCA and RA at Technological Readiness Level (TRL) 1-6. We perform a review of the literature presenting and/or developing approaches that combine LCA and RA at early stages of product design. We identify that basic early-on-evaluations of safety (e.g., apply lifecycle thinking to assess risk hotspots, avoid use of hazardous chemicals, minimize other environmental impacts from chemicals) are more common, while more complex assessments (e.g., ex-ante LCA, control banding, predictive (eco)toxicology) require specialized expertise. The application of these simplified approaches and guidelines aims to avoid some obvious sources of risks and impacts at early stages. Critical gaps need to be addressed for wider application of SbD, including more studies in the product design context, developing tools and databases containing collated information on risk, greater collaboration between RA/LCA researchers and companies, and policy discussion on the expansion from SbD to Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD).

Controlling the risks of nano-enabled products through the life cycle: The case of nano copper oxide paint for wood protection and nano-pigments used in the automotive industry.

The widespread use of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in consumer products and the overwhelming uncertainties in their ecological and human health risks have raised concerns regarding their safety among industries and regulators. There has been an ongoing debate over the past few decades on ways to overcome the challenges in assessing and mitigating nano-related risks, which has reached a phase of general consensus that nanotechnology innovation should be accompanied by the application of the precautionary principle and best practice risk management, even if the risk assessment uncertainties are large. We propose a quantitative methodology for selecting the optimal risk control strategy based on information about human health and ecological risks, efficacy of risk mitigation measures, cost and other contextual factors. The risk control (RC) methodology was developed in the European FP7 research project SUN and successfully demonstrated in two case studies involving real industrial nano-enabled products (NEPs): nano-scale copper oxide (CuO) and basic copper carbonate (Cu2(OH)2CO3) used as antimicrobial and antifungal coatings and impregnations for the preservation of treated wood, and two nanoscale pigments used for colouring plastic automotive parts (i.e. red organic pigment and carbon black). The application of RC for human health risks showed that although nano-related risks could easily be controlled in automotive plastics case study with modifications in production technology or specific type of engineering controls, nano-related risks due to sanding and sawing copper oxide painted wood were non-acceptable in the use lifecycle stage and would need the identification of a more effective risk control strategy.

Quantitative human health risk assessment along the lifecycle of nano-scale copper-based wood preservatives.

The use of nano-scale copper oxide (CuO) and basic copper carbonate (Cu2(OH)2CO3) in both ionic and micronized wood preservatives has raised concerns about the potential of these substances to cause adverse humans health effects. To address these concerns, we performed quantitative (probabilistic) human health risk assessment (HHRA) along the lifecycles of these formulations used in antibacterial and antifungal wood coatings and impregnations by means of the EU FP7 SUN project's Decision Support System (SUNDS, www.sunds.gd). The results from the risk analysis revealed inhalation risks from CuO in exposure scenarios involving workers handling dry powders and performing sanding operations as well as potential ingestion risks for children exposed to nano Cu2(OH)2CO3 in a scenario involving hand-to-mouth transfer of the substance released from impregnated wood. There are, however, substantial uncertainties in these results, so some of the identified risks may stem from the safety margin of extrapolation to fill data gaps and might be resolved by additional testing. Our stochastic approach successfully communicated the contribution of different sources of uncertainty in the risk assessment. The main source of uncertainty was the extrapolation from short to long-term exposure, which was necessary due to the lack of (sub)chronic in vivo studies with CuO and Cu2(OH)2CO3. Considerable uncertainties also stemmed from the use of default inter- and intra-species extrapolation factors.

Multi-criteria decision analysis applied to harmful algal bloom management: A case study.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have received greater attention in recent years due to an increase in the frequency of outbreaks and a growing potential for blooms to exact considerable economic losses and negatively impact ecosystem health. Human activity has been shown to intensify HAB outbreaks through increased eutrophication, elevated local air and water temperatures, disturbance of the thermal stratification of lakes, and modification of local hydrology. With the advent of new remediation technologies and a better understanding of the ecological factors affecting HABs, mitigating the adverse effects of HABs has become more feasible than ever before but still requires balancing mitigation efficiency, environmental impacts, costs, and stakeholder needs. In the present paper, we discuss potential HAB management solutions and propose using a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework to analyze the perspectives and priorities of various stakeholders as they pertain to 4 major considerations for HAB mitigation: human health, environmental impact, social impact, and technical feasibility. A hypothetical case study of an HAB-affected lake is used to demonstrate how stakeholders may prioritize HAB management alternatives within the MCDA framework. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:631-639. © 2016 SETAC.

Empowering citizens in international governance of nanotechnologies.

The international dialogue on responsible governance of nanotechnologies engages a wide range of actors with conflicting as well as common interests. It is also characterised by a lack of evidence-based data on uncertain risks of in particular engineered nanomaterials. The present paper aims at deepening understanding of the collective decision making context at international level using the grounded theory approach as proposed by Glaser and Strauss in "The Discovery of Grounded Theory" (1967). This starts by discussing relevant concepts from different fields including sociological and political studies of international relations as well as political philosophy and ethics. This analysis of current trends in international law making is taken as starting point for exploring the role that a software decision support tool could play in multi-stakeholder global governance of nanotechnologies. These theoretical ideas are then compared with the current design of the SUN Decision Support System (SUNDS) under development in the European project on Sustainable Nanotechnologies (SUN, www.sun-fp7.eu). Through constant comparison, the ideas are also compared with requirements of different stakeholders as expressed during a user workshop. This allows for highlighting discussion points for further consideration.

Is there a shift to "active nanostructures"?

It has been suggested that an important transition in the long-run trajectory of nanotechnology development is a shift from passive to active nanostructures. Such a shift could present different or increased societal impacts and require new approaches for risk assessment. An active nanostructure "changes or evolves its state during its operation," according to the National Science Foundation's (2006) Active Nanostructures and Nanosystems grant solicitation. Active nanostructure examples include nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nanomachines, self-healing materials, targeted drugs and chemicals, energy storage devices, and sensors. This article considers two questions: (a) Is there a "shift" to active nanostructures? (b) How can we characterize the prototypical areas into which active nanostructures may emerge? We build upon the NSF definition of active nanostructures to develop a research publication search strategy, with a particular intent to distinguish between passive and active nanotechnologies. We perform bibliometric analyses and describe the main publication trends from 1995 to 2008. We then describe the prototypes of research that emerge based on reading the abstracts and review papers encountered in our search. Preliminary results suggest that there is a sharp rise in active nanostructures publications in 2006, and this rise is maintained in 2007 and through to early 2008. We present a typology that can be used to describe the kind of active nanostructures that may be commercialized and regulated in the future.